what is recommended?

At 42,000 I had an Alli dealer change mine over to a deep pan and Transyend. The tech was from my hometown in NY and we had mutal friends, He has been an Alli tech for 35 yrs. When I picked up truck he gave me 5 spin on filters and 1 gal of Transend. plus the 1/2 gal left over from change over. . His words of advice: "Change spin on every 10,000,. Come back when truck has 1000,000 mi on it , I'll do pan filter and check every thing. Then your trany will OUTLAST your truck. If you don't mod it heavily". Advice I intend to take




http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=290518

If you changed your original fluid to Transyd and it wasnt originally transyd i would change it again at the normal interval (after 50k miles in general duty and 12,000 in severe duty). After speaking with Allison directly, i was told you dont have 100% transyd after the switch until your second fluid change. There is still quite a bit of the old stuff left in there after an initial fluid change. after your second change though, they recommend not changing it for 150K! I'm going to do mine after 100K for piece of mind but the ally guy told me i was wasting my money FWIW.

Change the spin on every 15K.

The filter inside the pan doesnt have to be messed with until an overhaul. Thus the reason it has a spin on filter.

good luck

Edit: Severe duty is 75,000 miles for transyd fluid after its considered 100% (Second fluid change)

Severe duty for any other allison approved fluid thats not transyd is 12,000 miles as well as the spin on at 12,000.

As far as allsions recommendation on the filter change, if your running transyd they indicate 50,000 for the spin on. I would go 15,000 if it were me.

GM doesn't provide extended drain interval numbers for using TranSynd, but in looking at Allison's website for commercial transmission usage, the following information is found (IF using 100% TranSynd):

Allison Transmission requires the following change intervals:
Transmission Fluid @ 150,000 miles (240 000 km)
48 months /4000 hours,
whichever comes first.

Control Main (Spin-on) Filter @ 50,000 miles (80 000 km)
24 months /2000 hours,
whichever comes first.

Internal Filter @ Overhaul Only

PM me your email and ill send you allisons official info on it. i cant upload it for some reason.

According to the Allison service manual, "Severe Duty" change interval for a TES 295 fluid is 75K/36 months/3000 hours — whichever comes first. IIUC, the 48 months is for transmissions beginning in '09. Crafty — is that correct?

Allisons "Severe" change intervals are 75,000 mi or 36 months/3000 hrs, as you said, where Severe Vocations are considerd to be: 2000 MH, On/Off Highway, Refuse, City Transit, and Shuttle Transit. (Again for 100% TranSynd).

The intervals I cited are for the "General" (all other) vocations. Quite honestly, there are very few cases in the pickup truck realm that usage would be considered to be "Severe" in the Allison terms since it is already designed for "commercial" use.

I completely agree with Crafty1.

Probably 99.9% of us don't qualify as "severe" service for the Allison. " ... where Severe Vocations are considerd to be: 2000 MH, On/Off Highway, Refuse, City Transit, and Shuttle Transit." The issue with these applications is the constant on/off throttle driving, flashing the torque converter with high load, low speed movements, little airflow over the cooler from low vehicle speeds, and little/no lockup of the converter. This is really hard on the fluid and tranny. And this is where a TES-295 fluid really shines with heightened capabilities to match the extreme environment.

But, most (nearly all) of us don't do this. We want to consider ourselves "manly" and our trucks are beasts that need to be tamed, where only "the absolute top-dollar best" will work, and anything else is inferior. But that's not reality. We can survive just fine on "normal" service and "normal" fluids. Commit to a reasonable maintenance routine with good fluids, and the Allison will last a long, long time. It's likely that Dmax/Alli combo will outlast the rest of the truck.